The Market

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Pebble Beach postponed to 2021

Pebble Beach postponed to 2021 23rd April 2020

That annual bedrock of the car-collecting calendar, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, will not take place this year. Simon offers his thoughts on the cancellation of the highest-profile event yet to fall victim to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s the one event that’s in the car collector’s diary every year, come war or peace, boom or bust… except for 2020. Overnight, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance organisers announced that after much deliberation, and with participants pushing to know whether they will be loading their precious cars onto ships, planes or trucks to arrive in time for August, they won’t be holding the event this year because of COVID-19 risks.

“That means no major auctions, races, concours or any of the surrounding razzmatazz. Monterey will seem like a ghost town in comparison to the usual frenzy, where hotel rooms regularly cost $1,000 a night, the hire car lot is picked bare, restaurant bookings are like gold dust and the traffic makes New York seem civilised. We’ll miss it.
 
“The concours classes and accepted entries will be carried over to 2021, meaning that restorers will have an extra year to achieve perfection beyond perfection. Auctions will move to later in the year or perhaps online, which won’t be a bad thing in a largely static market. When did you last hear ‘There aren’t enough auctions’?
 
“Last but not least, you might remind yourself what it’s like to go on holiday in mid-August instead of finding yourself packed into a crowded tent with $10 sodas.
 
“As we’ve said before, ‘Greatness survives everything’, so the cars will be as beautiful as ever and the show will go on, perhaps even better after a year of introspection and blue-sky thinking.”

See pebblebeachconcours.net

Photo by 'Peter'